Nightmare’s Call

“Alright, let’s have some grub. So what is it that you have to say?” Lin Sheng looked at the waiters pushing in the food trolley with all sorts of dishes as he shifted his gaze to Maier.

“Oh, actually I heard that Master Lin, you have started recruiting already, so I’m here to book a place for myself. I’m hoping to see if you are willing to give me a chance? I, Maier, want to step into the gates of the sacred light too!”

Maier divulged his desire after the waiters left.

“…Not everyone is capable of awakening sacred power within them…” Lin Sheng said rather helplessly.

“But I think I might have some chance. I’ve been totally ruled out as talentless with the dark powers, so I want to give the sacred powers a try!” Maier insisted.

“Alright, let me assess you.” Lin Sheng was speechless as he held a finger out and placed in on the back Maier’s rotund hand.

“Oh?” Lin Sheng let out a surprised noise.

“What’s wrong?” Maier tensed up as he asked.

He had gone for dark power testing many times over. His mother was an expert on the matter of dark powers, his father was no slouch either, and his sister was a genius with it, only him, who was practically useless at home.

So, in order to salvage whatever pride he had left in this lifetime, he relented and looked for Lin Sheng the moment he heard the news.

“There’s some hope… While your natural disposition is terrible… with some work, you will have hope to ascend and become a Transcendent.” Lin Sheng gave Maier an odd look.

“R-Really??!!” Maier, the portly man was stunned. “You’re… not pulling my leg, aren’t you?!!”

“If I have the time to pull your leg I might as well spent that to meditate,” Lin Sheng spat.

Maier took a deep breath as he heard that as he tried to contain his excitement.

He had already come prepared for rejection, so he never thought that…

“Alright, if you are willing, come over to the Holy Sanctum a few days later to take the sacred power training assessment.” Lin Sheng did not dither and simply went ahead to inform him.

“Sure!” Maier slammed his hand on the table as he got up. “I’m in your care!” he exclaimed as he gave Lin Sheng a deep bow before gulping down a cup of fruit juice that was just served.

Then Lin Sheng saw him walked out slowly in a daze out of the restaurant as he stood there looking into the heavens. God knows what he was thinking then.

Lin Sheng shook his head, not understanding what sort of emotions the portly man had at that moment. He simply continued eating.

That meal itself took about half an hour and by the time he got home, it was already dark.

Lin Sheng was in his room, but he did not train, rather he made a series of calls to check on things.

With the initial promotion of the Holy Sanctum, it would be bad if no one came to pray.

If no one came, that meant that he needed to continuously feed it sacred power every day to maintain the sanctum’s basic matrixes.

And that would become a burden instead.

“Hopefully everything works out well.”

As he put down the phone, without any of the information he wanted, Lin Sheng could only close his eyes and started meditating.

…

“Alright, alright. What is it that you want me to collect at this ungodly hour in this godforsaken place?”

Deep in the night, a fat man in glasses wheezed as he slowly lugged his portly frame to the bottom of the Holy Sanctum’s hill.

The small hill where Lin Sheng had constructed the Holy Sanctum was not that large, but there were still some recently-built public facilities at the bottom of the hill.

The fat man staggered, clutching his barely moving leg as he finally stopped to rest, drenched in sweat.

With much effort, he pulled out his phone. In Xylond, a much more advanced nation than Xilin, the telephone fees were at the rate where the commoners could use, and this made it much easier than Xilin.

The fat man quickly dialed a number.

“The number you have called is unavailable. Please try again later,” an automatic voice prompt suddenly rang out.

The fat man’s expression suddenly changed.

“Bloody hell… are they pulling my leg? Or are they late?” He looked around. All around him was the deepest part of the park closest to the bottom of the hill, and on the left was a wide staircase up the hill.

The stairs seemed to be newly built as the granite staircase extended upwards. On both sides, were the dim light of solar-powered street lamps, they were not particularly bright, but enough to make out his surroundings.

More importantly, at every set distance along the stairs were a few benches. The fat man looked around, and aside from the stairs, there was no place to rest. If he wanted to rest, he had to climb the stairs.

With no resource, he looked at the dozen-odd steps as he slowly clambered upwards.

But the moment he stepped on the stairs, he shuddered.

“Wha…?!” The fat man suddenly felt like he finally tasted cool wind after being left out to dry in the sun for three straight days.

His already wheezing self with his already heavy dark circles suddenly felt better the moment he got onto the steps. And even his fatigue caused by the shortness of breath was relieved.

“This place…it’s like magic!”

The fat man took a step back and left the stairs and suddenly that sensation of relief disappeared.

Swallowing hard, the man suddenly felt that he had run into a monumental secret as he took a few steps forward and felt that gush of relief again.

“My God!!”

The fat man quickly took out his phone and started taking videos of the place. These were all materials that he wanted to share with his bunch of friends, to see if anyone had any idea what was going on.

…

Within two short days, what Lin Sheng did not expect was the Holy Sanctum’s main visitors were not the visitors who came here because of the advertisements, rather, they were pairs or trios of sports enthusiasts who came running up and down the steps.

There were also a couple of shut-ins who went there to camp and have some barbeque.

The latter group, especially, was beyond Lin Sheng’s expectations.

He had come over after receiving word that the bottom of the hill was full of people. And by the time he got there, all he saw were people crowding around the newly built steps.

Every part of the step was occupied and he never thought that there would be so many youngsters there in Shermanton with nothing else better to do than clog up the place.

Lin Sheng looked up and saw young men and women sitting on the steps playing their phones, or reading comics and novels. They were all young looking, most with dark eye circles, probably working late and their health ill.

“Why are there so many people…??” Lin Sheng was a little confounded. It had only been two days.

Even Adolf was stunned by the spectacle.

He had gotten a call from his men about a massive crowd there, but he had no idea how massive until he got there to see it for himself.

“What do we do now?” he asked Lin Sheng.